Caplin's ex-lover says she was 'intimate with Tony'. Well, he's got a book to sell

Carole Caplin claims Foster 'is just a fantasist'

By Chris Hastings and Colin Brown

12:01AM GMT 07 Mar 2004

Peter Foster, the convicted conman who helped Cherie Blair to buy two flats has made lurid claims of an intimate relationship between Tony Blair and Carole Caplin, Mrs Blair's "lifestyle guru".

Downing Street last night declined to comment on specific details of Mr Foster's sordid claims, which emerged in a newspaper interview in his native Australia and circulated around the world yesterday.

A No 10 spokesman accused the conman of trying to draw attention to his memoirs which are due to be published within a few days.

"This is the latest attempt by Peter Foster to get publicity for his supposed book. We have absolutely no intention of taking these claims seriously and neither should anyone else."

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In an article headlined "Tony Blair was 'intimate' with my girlfriend", Mr Foster, who has been jailed in Britain, Australia and America, told the Sun Herald in Sydney that the memoirs would contain a "weapon of mass destruction".

Ms Caplin said: "This is just a new way for Peter to get attention. He is just a fantasist and these absurd stories shouldn't be given any credibility."

Mr Foster has been working on his autobiography, which is being ghost-writen by Richard Shears of the Daily Mail, since being deported to Australia from Dublin last year. He has boasted that the book, entitled A Question of Deceit, would contain information that could bring down Mr Blair.

In his Sun Herald interview he added: "People think that Cherie is the ugly duckling who Carole advised with clothes and make-up and styling. The truth is that Tony relied on Carole too. Carole coached him on how to handle people, how to handle situations and how to present himself. She picked his clothes, right down to his underpants.

"The intensity and the closeness of their relationship was something I saw and I was amazed by and annoyed by."

He has also made the extraordinary claim that Ms Caplin, his former lover who was employed by Mrs Blair as her stylist, was in love with Mr Blair. "The heart of my book is the extraordinary influence that Carole has over Tony. The British public's greatest misconception is that Carole and Cherie Blair are the star relationship. The true relationship is between Carole and Tony.

"Everyone has underestimated the potency of the relationship between Carole and Tony. They went for long walks in the woods around Chequers and phoned each other at night, having long conversations. The third person in the triangle wasn't Cherie, it was Tony. Carole has a more extensive influence over Tony Blair than Cherie. British people would be flabbergasted if they knew the extent to which Mr Blair relies on Carole."

Mr Foster last night claimed that Mr Blair was in frequent telephone contact with Ms Caplin. He said that he had confronted her about the alleged "intimacy" with the prime minister.

Speaking from his home in Australia he told The Sunday Telegraph: "I had my own suspicions and confronted Carole about them on four separate occasions. She denied them in the way any girlfriend would. I know Tony used to ring Carole every second night."

Mr Foster added: "I would rather all of this had been kept out of the public domain. I would have been happy for the biography to have come out without any of this."

A Cabinet minister, who asked not to be named, said last night that Mr Foster was making wild claims in an attempt to make financial gain. He did, however, accept that the allegations could damage the Government.

"This is disgusting. Foster is prepared to say anything to make money. We knew it was going to be tough in the run-up to the general election. We had Iraq and Hutton, and this just knocks us back."

George Foulkes, a former Labour minister, said: "It is a smear and you despair at the level of fantasy that some people will sink to in order to smear Tony Blair. It is beyond belief, and beyond contempt."

A friend of Mr Foster last night said that he had often made the allegation in private. "He was always going on about Tony and Carole. But that doesn't mean it was true."

One of Ms Caplin's friends said: "I think Carole was obsessed with Mr Blair on almost every level. That is not to say there is anything in these allegations from Mr Foster.

"They had quite a touchy feely relationship but then Carole is quite a tactile person. She used to love doing things for him. She used to talk about babysitting him when Cherie was out of the country. She would prepare his meals and sort out his wardrobe. She once spent a whole day arranging his shirts, ties and trousers. She enjoyed doing it."

There will, however, be extreme scepticism among many in Westminster about Mr Foster's claims given his history as a professional conman and liar.

In 1995 he was given a two-year prison sentence at Liverpool Crown Court for conspiring to supply a special weight loss drink that turned out to be tea. He absconded while on work release and went to Australia, where he was held pending his deportation to Britain.

After extradition he was sentenced to 33 months at St Albans Crown Court in September 2000. He was immediately freed, however, because he had spent 22 months in custody awaiting trial. Prior to the slimming tea scandal Mr Foster was fined £75,000 in Australia for trying to defraud an insurance company. In 1984 he was declared bankrupt for trying to market a "magic" method of quitting smoking.

Mr Foster, 44, has spent the past few days trying to recover sensitive material given to a tabloid newspaper to substantiate claims in his biography. He appeared in Queensland's Supreme Court in Brisbane on Tuesday seeking to force Richard Shears, The Daily Mail's Australia correspondent, to return a collection of photographs, documents and 5,000 e-mails. The information was passed by Mr Foster to the newspaper to back up his claims about the Blairs.

Mr Foster has reportedly sold the serialisation rights to the The Daily Mail for £500,000. Last week his lawyer Sean Cousins described the material as explosive. "We're not just talking about the salacious antics of a playboy. This is life and death, career, or no career."

Mr Foster's new swipe at the Blairs is not the first time that he has caused problems for the Prime Minister.

The revelation in 2002 that he had helped Mrs Blair to buy two flats prompted a political row. Downing Street claimed that Mr Foster had played only a minor role in the transaction and had been involved for just a couple of weeks.

The subsequent publication of private e-mails, however, showed that Mr Foster had spent almost six weeks helping Mrs Blair to finalise the deal. Downing Street refused to account for the two very different explanations.

There was further controversy when it was alleged that Mr Foster paid up to £4,000 in accountants' fees for Mrs Blair and had successfully negotiated a discount on the properties.